Vest or waistcoat



Ajax-i1 27, 1937; 1 QEMMS 2,078,725

VEST OR WAI STCOAT Filed Feb. 14, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A T/n/e tor; Char/R mmy y AZZB ne/x April '27, 1937. Y C -EMM$ 2,078,725

' I 7 VEST 0R WAISTCOAT I Filed Feb. 14, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 27, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application February 14, 1935, Serial No. 6,552 In Great Britain October 8, 1934 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-102) This invention relates to Vests suitable for evening dress and daytime wear.

The main object of the invention is to provide a dress vest of smart appearance in which the 5. amount of tailoring (fitting) is reduced to a minimum.

Another object of the invention is to provide a waistcoat which can be tensioned round the waist and when used with a dress shirt will hold the latter in position without buckling.

Owing to the difiiculty of obtaining a correct fit with an evening dress vest or waistcoat, more especially when a stiff fronted shirt is worn, it has been the practice in recent years to wear a backless vest which hangs from the neck and is adjustably secured by a strap at the back. While this form of vest is a considerable improvement over the ordinary type with a back it still does not prevent the faces of the vest from bulging.

When wearing evening dress little can be seen of the vest or, waistcoat and in fact with a tail coat it is only the portion across the waist and appearing below the coat line that is visible, the remainder, that is the lapel portion being covered up by the breast pieces of the coat and thus my invention consists broadly in fashioning the vest in such a manner that it does not hang from the neck as in an ordinary or backless vest so that it is supported only by attachment round the waistline.

The waistcoat of this invention essentially includes a band which can be secured firmly around the waist of the wearer thereby overcoming any tendency to bulge, the band being fashioned and/or made at the front to simulate the appearance of an ordinary dress vest and fastened at the back by means of a strap or other suitable form of fastening. The fashioning of the band is carried out by providing an artificial line of join such as by means of a seam, together with buttons.

The waistcoat may comprise a front, which is formed in one or two pieces, as may be convenient according to the style of waistcoat required,

and side pieces attached to the front and adapted to form the fasteningor to which the fastening means are secured. When the front is in two pieces, preferably the edge of the outer or front piece is left unsewn so that it possesses a natural 5.0 edge effect.

The front piece is provided with buttonholes to suit the style in question and preferably pockets are also formed therein.

Positioning loops or tags adapted for engage- 55, ment with the braces and the top trouser buttons may be attached to the back of the front piece, but these will not be found necessary.

The front piece may if necessary be provided with a suitable stiffening means and for example detachable bone stiifeners may be fitted.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of one style of dress vest constructed in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 being a detail perspective sectional view thereof. 10

Figure 3 is a front lay-out view on a smaller scale of an alternative style of dress vest constructed in accordance with the invention, Figure 4 being a part back view thereof on a larger scale. 15

Figure 5 is a front lay-out view showing a further style of dress vest.

Figures 6 and 7 are respectively a front and plan view on a larger scale of a modified form of the vest of Figure 3. 20

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a dress vest constructed in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention.

Figure 9 is a view of a vest similar to that shown in Figure 8. 25

Referring to the drawings, the dress vest is constructed in the form of a waist band indicated generally at A and adapted to be fastened around the waist of the wearer. While the band may be constructed in a single piece of material, in most 30 cases it will be found more convenient to make up the waist band in three portions, the front B and side pieces C and D which are attached to the ends of the front.

The front of the band, or as shown in Figure 35 1 the front piece B, itself is provided with an artificial junction line, which in the embodiment of Figure 1 is obtained by the false buttons B and their buttonholing, of which there are two rows G so as to simulate a double breasted vest. 40

In the embodiment of Figure 3, the artificial junction line is obtained by a seam B in addition to the buttons and buttonholing, and by cutting the usual points B and a front opening 3*. 45

It will be appreciated that the front piece B may consist of a single length of material according to the design as in the case of that shown in Figure 1 or it may consist of two pieces as in the case of the styles shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5, the two pieces being joined by a seam line at the front which gives the appearance of an opening.

The shape of the front is thus dependent upon the style of vest required. In Figure 1 the front ing in order that it may take the strain imposed upon it by the belt attachment without drag ing at the buttonholes as would occur iffthe 'two 1 pieces buttoned together as in the case of the or-,

dinary vest. V g

However if desired a buttoning effect may-be obtained by providing a loose flap,which is held down by the buttons but has no pull.-upon,;it.

Thus in. the double breasted style of Figure 5 the overlapmay button down, the two-pieces B;

actually being united by stitching downthe centre.- r

The artificial buttons are convenienty detachable for the purpose of cleaning the vest and preferably therefore proper buttonholes G are formed in the front, there being two rows in the double breasted style of Figure 1 and a single row in Figure 3. In this case a protective flap of material H' is secured to the back of the front to form a pocket within which are the button securing clips.

The side pieces C and D, which may or may not be formed of the same material as the front, con-- stitute the securing means, one piece having a seriesof holes I and the other a buckle J which is detachably secured by buttons K.

While other forms of fastening, adjustable or otherwise may-be fitted-they should be such as to give a firm purchase round the waist. A buckle fastening as illustrated, owing to the breadth of the buckle will fit into the hollow of the waist and transmit a pull throughout the width of the side pieces so that the entire vest front will sit flat across the stomach.

' A similareffect could be obtained by the small buckles spaced apart but this would not be so emcacious from the point of view of the wearer or of manufacture. For example the pieces C and D may be of elastic material and it is not essential that they be madeof the same length, in which casethe fastening would be at the side.

F are pockets which however are not essential. It will be understood that either welt (Figures 1 and 3) or jetted (Figure 5) type pocketsmay be provided.

In certain styles it may be found convenient to have'some form of stiffening means and for this purpose vertically extending pockets L are provided at the back for the reception of bone stif feners M. 1 1

A buttonholed tag N (Figure 4) is attached w the back at the centre in order to locate the vest centrally, the tag buttoning' on to the trouser buttons. 0 are loops which may be positionedto prevent the vest "band from riding upwards, the loops engaging the trouserbuttons. For the purpose of adjustability the tag N maybe made to slide-upon a'tape extending across the-back of the front, the tapebeing secured by sewmgina position to suit the wearer.

The natural effect of the vest may be enhanced by constructing it in such a manner that the but tons will unfasten although the vest will not actually undo at the front. -In this arrangementitis necessary to make the front B from two separate pieces P and Q of material which are united by sewing along the seam B On the piece P are sewn the buttons-B while proper buttonholes G are made in the piece Q. Obviously in the case of a dress vest the buttons B may be detachable as in the vest illustrated in the previous figures.

The-advantage of thisa-rrangement-is that the edge'R of the front piece Q will. have what is known as a natural edge thereby increasing the :;real appearance of the vest.

edgenof the. uppermost front piece which is the right hand side as viewed from the front with a flap or looseedgeziindicated at R (Figure 8).

According-tea further feature of the invention thefront of the vest may be detachable from the back. Such an arrangement is shown in Figures sand-91nwhich the two pieces-*3 constituting the front are detachablysecured 'to a; one

piece back S Whichitself is adjustable.

"In the arrangement shown in Figure 8- 'two'- buttons T are mounted on the-endsof the'back' piece for engagement with buttonholes T in the front.

Preferably as shown the buttonholing is formed in" the front piece sees not to'interfere with the cleaning of the front, which-when it becomes dirty may be detached and sent to the cleaners.

A further advantage of this arrangement is' that the wearer may: possess several fronts to a or asingle hook and loop extending over the'entire depth of the back may be employed. It is important however to space the 1 attachment means i. e; the buttons, a distance apart' from each other so that they lie adjacent theedges since this ensures that the pull exerted by the back piece is transferred to the top and "bottom.

edges of the front'thereby maintaining an even tension across the front of the vest and not a line tension across the centre which would cause the front to buckle more especially after it has been usedseveral times;

Referring now to Figure 9 there is shown an alternate style of front in 'which the front is detachably secured to the back which is in two pieces as in Figures 1- 3 by means of zip fastenings. It will be noted'that'the partof the zip fastening integral with the frontis secured to flaps U secured togthe 'front pieces B and ob-j vio'uslythis' may applyto the buttonholing of Figure 8. A buckle fastening as shown in Figures land 3 maybe-substituted for the zip fastening; the buckIe being'attachably secured to thefiaps U, in which case the two piece back with a buckle (adjustable) fastening as shown would not be necessary. p r Y Wherethe back 'is in onepiece a belttype 'of adjustment havinga' slide V=may be provided, or alternatively-the back may be constructed of alasticmateri'al. 7 v i In orderto'allow the wearer a 'certainamount of give inserts of elastic material may be let into the back or back pieces of any of the forms of vest illustrated. v i

It will be clear that the: vest of invention lends itself to the production of almost any style or design of dressvestfor the like.

" Although in the foregoing description and in the accompanying drawings the invention has been described and illustrated mainly with reference to an evening dress vest, it will be obvious that the invention lends itself to Waistcoats for daytime wear, particularly in the hot part of the year. Thus a vest may be cut in black silk or linen or other suitable materials and may be worn with a morning coat, or a single or double breasted jacket.

The vest of this invention will be found a distinct improvement upon the backless type of vest since once in position it does not require pulling or positioning, as the vest in whatever position the wearer may be whether sitting or standing, will not be affected with the result that the wearer can go about assured of a tidy feeling about the waist.

What I claim is:-

A dress or like vest constructed in the form of an open-ended body-encircling band having fastening means at its ends and comprising a narrow front section comprising overlapping portions stitched together and having its outer ends of lesser width than the center, narrow side straps directly connected by stitching to the ends of the front section, the upper edges of the straps being disposed in alinement with the upper edge of the front section, and the connections between the front section and the side straps being transversely flexible, and transverse stiffening means attached to the front section on opposite sides of and in close proximity to the center line of said front section.

CHARLES EMMS. 

